Lukas Podolski: the man, the goals, the fishing, his dog « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. 800,000 visits last month

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By Tony Attwood

Stories about that we have signed Lukas Podolski – who would be our third Polish born player.  It seems he will join when the transfer window opens, perhaps a move to avoid the agent and media inspired chaos of last summer.

He comes from a sporting family;Podolski’s mother was an international sportswoman, being a member of the Polish national handball team.  (I know the sport is hardly known in the UK, but it is huge in Germany and Poland).

With German grandparents and being from a town that itself had shuffled between Poland and West Germany, the family were allowed to move from Poland to West Germany when Lukas was two, and he grew up near Cologne with Lukas holding joint nationality (although he has said in interviews that he does not have a Polish passport.)  He sometimes speaks of himself as a Pole playing in the German national side.  He supports Górnik Zabrze

Podolski joined FC Kölnin 1995 and at the age of 18 joined the first team scoring 10 goals in 18 appearances – not bad for a newcomer to a side sinking fast into the second division.Köln were promoted in 2005 and Podolski was the top scorer in the league, but when the financially pressured club slipped back into the second Lukas decided to move on – not least because by then he was a central part of the German team.

By 2006 every club this side of Ursa Minor was looking to buy Podolski and in June 2006, Podolski announced that he was going to Bayern Munich for around €10 million. He made his debut in August but in October suffered an ankle injury during training and missed the next five weeks.

After Bayern brought Luca Toni Podolski moved back to his former club in 2009 for around €10 million.  His first season back was poor by his standards but in 2010-11 he returned to better form.   The transfer to Arsenal is thought to be about €13 million.

Podolski was in the Germany squad for the 2006 World Cup and scored his first World Cup goal in Germany’s third group match against Ecuador and then both goals in the 2-0 win against Sweden. He was named the best Young Player of the tournament.

He is one of four German players to score four goals in an international match, and he has also played left midfield for the national side.  In the Euro 2008 final  Podolski was headbutted by David Silva – although the ref missed it.  In the qualifiers for Euro 2012 he scored 3 and had three assists as Germany won all 10 games.

In total he has scored 92 goals in 235 senior matches.  Stories in the press say that he has a four year contract (so expect Redknapp the Younger to start abusing Arsenal about him in three years time) and will be paid £5,200,000 a year.Per Mertesacker is said to have told German television on Wednesday that Podolski had been asking him about life in London and the reputation of Arsenal.  “I have told him this is a great place to work and Arsenal are an amazing club.”

As for the fishing and the dog, the gutter press have been strangely quiet, but I am sure that now Untold has given the men in the pub the hint, all will be quickly revealed.

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